Blood, Ink & Fire by Ashley Mansour|Review

This book was probably the best YA/Fantasy/Paranormal/Dystopien I’ve read the past year. I absolutely loved and devoured this book and I cannot wait for everyone else to read it too. Everything about this book was perfect, from the world to the characters and the ending. I hope some of you go and read it after this.

But first, the premise:

Imagine a world without books…
In the future, books are a distant memory. The written word has been replaced by an ever-present stream of images known as Verity. In the controlling dominion of the United Vales of Fell, reading is obsolete and forbidden, and readers themselves do not—cannot—exist.
But where others see images in the stream, teenager Noelle Hartley sees words. She’s obsessed with what they mean, where they came from, and why they found her.

Noelle’s been keeping her dangerous fixation with words a secret, but on the night before her seventeenth birthday, a rare interruption in the stream leads her to a mysterious volume linked to an underworld of rebel book lovers known as the Nine of the Rising. With the help of the Risers and the beguiling boy Ledger, Noelle discovers that the words within her are precious clues to the books of the earlier time—and as a child of their bookless age, she might be the world’s last hope of bringing them back.

First of all, I just want to thank Ashley for writing such an amazing book. I feel so honoured to be a part of The Hundred and I really can’t wait for BIF to take off because this book is truly fantastic. It’s been an absolute pleasure to help Ashley with this book and I’m very positive about her future as an author.

The world Ashley created is so original and unique, it has absolutely blown my mind. It’s very hard to find books which have a unique setting and plot and I’m amazed and shocked why no author has ever come up with this kind of idea for a book. I’m so very happy that Ashley managed to write something that no author has ever written; something that every reader in the world can relate to: being a reader and wanting to keep books alive.

So basically, this book is about a world where books have been banned, reading is forbidden and any reading will be punished by death immediately. The government has successfully erased all memories of books and reading.

Except one girl, Noelle, who is destined to read and save her bookless age. She is the only hope to bring books back to life.

Essentially, the world is divided into different states, the Sovereigns.

What the government doesn’t know is that every Sovereign has found its own way to keep books alive. So Noelle takes on a journey through every Sovereign to find what she needs to revive the world. Of course, during her journey she has to fight through many and many obstacles.

I absolutely loved the idea of the Sovereigns. Even though I first thought that the lot of information was too much, it actually wasn’t as confusing as I thought it would be and it was rather easy to follow the plot and the politics which made it much more interesting.

I loved all of the characters. Noelle was so relatable and a perfect heroine, even though I didn’t quite like all of her decisions. All of the other characters were so lovable and charming you instantly connected with them.

The writing was so beautiful, I have rarely read something so enticing an captivating. Ashley literally put me under the spell with her writing. I loved how I could fully immerse myself into the storyline at any given time.

Lastly, I loved the plot. It was so well thought through. Literally every step and every new aspect was integrated so well into the book that in the end, it all came together into this amazing conclusion which, even though Ashley described everything so detailed, left many unanswered questions.

All in all, a fantastic, mind-blowing, must-read for every reader in the world.